Aaron serves as Partner and Broker at Gaut Whittenburg Emerson. With more than twenty-one years of commercial real estate experience, Aaron has personally completed more than 1,500 office transactions valuing in excess of $350 million and totaling more than 4.5 million square feet.
Aaron began his career with The Vanguard Commercial Group in Dallas, Texas. During Aaron’s time in Dallas, he exclusively represented tenants at the local as well as Corporate Services level.
Prior to moving to Amarillo, in 2004, Aaron was with Scribcor Texas, where he worked as a Transaction Manager charged with negotiating and managing a portfolio of 1,100 leases, consisting of 12,000,000 square feet, for the Texas Government. While with Scribcor Texas, as a “Tenant Rep”, Aaron personally negotiated more than 120 leases, totaling more than 1.2 million square feet at an average savings of 20% per lease, yielding a savings of $10,000,000 for the taxpayers of the State of Texas.
Aaron earned his CCIM designation in 2008. A CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) is a recognized expert in the disciplines of commercial and investment real estate. Six percent (6%) of the estimated 150,000 commercial real estate practitioners nationwide hold the CCIM designation.
In July of 2011 Aaron earned the designation of SIOR. Real estate professionals who have earned the SIOR designation are recognized by corporate real estate executives, commercial real estate brokers, agents, lenders, and other real estate professionals as the most capable and experienced brokerage practitioners in any market.
Aaron is the only broker in Amarillo that holds both the CCIM and SIOR designations. Of the 150,000 commercial real estate professionals throughout the United States, only 3% hold both the CCIM and SIOR designations.
Aaron serves on the Chapter Advisory Committee for the Texas Alpha Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Texas Tech University. He and his wife, Erin, have three sons.
Notable Transactions
- Re-lease of the 31-story FirstBank Southwest Tower. After the FBSW Tower coincidentally lost 3 large tenants who totaled 150,000 sq. ft., half of the building’s occupancy, Aaron leased the property from 45% back up to 85% in just 18 months.
- Purchase and lease up of the 71,000 sq. ft. Atrium at Coulter Ridge. Represented Landlord in the purchase of the 50% occupied Atrium at Coulter Ridge. In less than 2 years, Aaron leased the property to 90%.
- Represented multiple owners in the lease up and sale of the 31-story Chase Tower. In just 2 years, Aaron took the Chase Tower from 60% occupancy up to 98% occupancy, more than doubling the value of the asset.
- Represented Landlord in the lease up and sale of the downtown Wells Fargo Center. Aaron took the occupancy of the 117,000 sq. ft. WFC from 65% up to 99%, more than doubling the value of the asset.
- Represented owner in the lease up and the sale of Helm Plaza 1 downtown. Aaron took the occupancy from 60% up to 100% in just 2 years.